


as real as you can be

by cherrychoke



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, First Meetings, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Friends to Lovers, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23633365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrychoke/pseuds/cherrychoke
Summary: baekhyun gets a boyfriend who lives a couple hours of train ride away.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Kim Minseok | Xiumin
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	as real as you can be

Baekhyun only hopes he isn’t being considered a child in Minseok’s head. He isn’t one, his profile clearly has a 22 in it, Minseok can’t consider him as such. Yet, his brain somehow has managed to convince him that Minseok probably looks at him like a child. And yet, he’s here, with a pounding headache and his heart about to leap into his throat, waiting for a response.

_ [i like you] _ is the first text after yesterday’s good nights.  _ [like. a bf. i have a crush on you, i mean.] _

It’s very uncharacteristic of him to not add any emojis, not extend any letters to make it seem like he’s whining. Despite how much he doesn’t like not doing any of the above, he’s done it to make sure Minseok knows that this isn’t a prank. Maybe he should add that it isn’t a prank? Or will that make it seem more like a prank?

The thought starts to spiral in his head, Baekhyun groans loudly, under his blanket. It’s 1:10am, Minseok is not online to reply instantly. He’d usually ramble about his frustrating thoughts to Minseok, but that’s not an option right now, so he settles to groaning some more.

“Be quiet, Baekhyun,” Comes Chanyeol’s voice, followed by a pillow thrown at him. It startles Baekhyun into dropping his phone on his chest, gasping loudly. “Go to sleep.”

Baekhyun peeks his head outside the blanket, stares at Chanyeol who is glaring at him sleepily. He gives Chanyeol a thumbs up, turns away from him and takes his phone in his hands again.

His heart almost stops when he notices the green dot near Minseok’s profile. Seconds later, his texts have a ‘seen’ below them and Baekhyun has to bite his own fingers to avoid screaming in horror. Minseok is never awake at this hour, did someone hack into his account? Or is it actually him?

_ [did you get hacked?] _ he adds two thinking emojis, one thought bubble emoji.

_ [no? lol baek] _ Is the reply. Baekhyun locks his phone and tosses it aside. He stares into the darkness with his heart beating abnormally against his chest. He takes a couple of deep breaths, tries to calm himself down. When he reaches for his phone, his hands are shaking. His phone chimes, the screen brightens into his face, and Baekhyun squeezes his eyes shut. He locks his phone again, puts it aside. There are three more chimes, then a whole minute of silence.

The minute of silence almost lulls him to sleep, but his phone chimes again. He finally squints at the screen, trying to avoid checking the actual message and see if it’s actually from Minseok or not. They are. That doesn’t help, for some reason.

He opens the chat, something unpleasant stirs his stomach, but he reads the messages anyway.

_ [why are you telling me this suddenly?] _

_ [wait are you serious] _

_ [i like you too!!] _ followed by two heart emojis.

_ [byun baekhyun are you ignoring me right now? after this?] _

Baekhyun sends a _ [no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] _ with various sad emojis. He isn’t sure if this is really happening. If Minseok actually likes him back, it feels like a dream. Baekhyun pinches his arm, winces, then giggles like an idiot. He covers his mouth after he hears Chanyeol groan once again, then he can’t stop beaming at his phone.

*

He ends up falling asleep in one of his language classes. Jongdae elbows him several times, but he falls asleep just as quickly as he sat up. The professor didn’t seem to notice, so Baekhyun managed to sleep for a whole hour for the day. He considers it a win.

During lunch break, when he’s texting Minseok again, Chanyeol flicks his forehead. Baekhyun winces, rubs his forehead and glares at his friend. “What was that for?”

“Eat first,” He deadpans. “Did you get any sleep last night?”

“No.” Baekhyun is proud of it. He texted Minseok all night, their texts quickly became more cheesy than he’d expected (which wasn’t much to begin with, frankly), and he still can’t get over the fact that he has a boyfriend now. A boyfriend. Kim Minseok, who studies architecture and has more caffeine in his body than water.

After a beat, when everyone’s ignored his prideful comment, Baekhyun clears his throat. “I asked Minseok-hyung out last night.”

Junmyeon gasps, points at him with chopsticks. “What did he say?”

“He agreed! We’re going out now! I have a boyfriend!”

“Are you sure you didn’t threaten him?” Jongdae says with a playful smile. “Or if he was in the right mind.”

They all chuckle while Baekhyun starts whining about bad friends. There’s a series of ‘congratulations!’ in their small group chat, though. Baekhyun rolls his eyes at them. “You’re right here, you can say it to my face.”

“We’re your friends only for your dog, Baekhyun.” Junmyeon chimes with a smile. Baekhyun whines more.

*

He’s seen Minseok’s face, and the elder has seen his face too, but it seems more scary for some reason. It’s their first video call, and Baekhyun wears the coziest hoodie for comfort, wearing only boxers below waist. He doesn’t plan on showing his lower half, anyway. He squirms nervously in his seat, crosses his legs on the chair and waits patiently as the black screen slowly turns into a pixelated picture of Minseok.

The pixelation hurts his eyes, but Minseok’s moving around stops after a while. His face and shoulders are the only thing visible on the screen, he’s wearing a blue turtleneck, shoulders hunched. It looks wonderful on him, the turtleneck. Minseok looks amazing in anything and everything, evidently so in his Instagram feed. He smiles beautifully, and waves at him.

“Hi!” Baekhyun waves back excitedly. “How is your day off?”

Minseok sighs. “I have millions of projects and a single day off.”

Baekhyun frowns. “Maybe you should tell your professors that you have a cute boyfriend who needs attention. They might cut you some slack.”

“Sure,” Minseok chuckles. “Mr. Kang, look how cute he is, how can I finish a project which will affect my future when I have to pay attention to such a cutie?”

Baekhyun giggles, leans his elbows on the table. He lowers his voice, trying to sound like a super old person. “Ah, I understand Minseok, you can drop this project. Give him all the attention he needs.”

Minseok laughs loudly, he spins in his chair and bends over himself, his shoulders shaking. Baekhyun can’t believe his boyfriend is so hot and yet so cute at the same time. He watches as Minseok tries to stifle his laughter and get back to talking. He has a wide, gummy smile on his face all while they talk.

*

_ [i’ve been thinking of hold your hand] _

Baekhyun squeaks. Chanyeol is wearing headphones, doesn’t spare him a single glance. Baekhyun makes sure Chanyeol can’t hear him and squeaks once more into the pillow. He’s been thinking about it too, honestly. Maybe a lot more than Minseok, because he doesn’t have stupid projects, his career path doesn’t require so many projects. They’re going to meet tomorrow, at the train station. After nearly six months of dating. They’ll have a real, physical coffee date. Baekhyun will get to hold Minseok’s hand somewhere along the way as he shows around his favourite food places around his campus.

He’s a victim to following way too many manhwa artists, who post a lot of pictures of characters kissing in various places. Ever since they’ve started dating, Baekhyun has wondered if he’ll ever kiss Minseok like those arts. When they settled on a date to meet, Baekhyun started to wonder if he’ll get to do all of those kisses.

Thinking about it gives him butterflies in his stomach — not the nervous kind, thankfully. He has some experience in kissing, he doesn’t worry about that. But he’s seen a lot of shirtless pictures of Minseok and he’s starting to fluster himself at random times during the day. His friends don’t help at all, as usual. 

_ [so cheesy, hyung] _ He adds a winky emoji, a tongue emoji. _ [do you think either of us will cry?] _

_ [you] _

Baekhyun giggles behind his hands. _ [no you] _

*

“Where’s your real playlist?” Minseok grins, gestures at his earphone. “I have your playlist, why aren’t you playing that?”

Baekhyun’s face is way too warm for summer. He pouts at Minseok. “This is my playlist.”

They’re at the cafe nearest to the train station, since Minseok was craving some coffee. They’re sitting in front of each other, the table is small enough that they can share earphones without having to get out of their chairs. Their legs are locked, faces really close.

“No, it isn’t!” Minseok takes the earphone in his hands, leans against the chair. “You have a sexy songs playlist. You listen to that nonstop.”

“I don’t,” Baekhyun huffs. “I was just trying to make a nice first impression…”

Minseok’s free hand gives his hand a gentle squeeze. “Nothing needs to change now, you know.”

Baekhyun stares at his boyfriend with a huge grin on his face. “Nothing? But the brochure said I’d get at least one kiss.”

Minseok laughs clutching his stomach. “You’re so cute, Baekhyunnie.”

*

Minseok is warm. Baekhyun easily snuggles up against him, despite the hot sun outside. They don’t have air conditioning, but the fan is doing enough for him to stay snuggled up against Minseok’s warm chest and listen to him talk to one of his friends about their group project. His legs are over Minseok’s, arms around Minseok’s waist. He can feel the solid abs against his forearm.

“I’ll miss this,” Baekhyun mutters, buries his face into the crook of Minseok’s neck. “I don’t want you to go.”

Minseok strokes his back absently. He probably didn’t hear all his muttering. The call ends soon, and Baekhyun gets a kiss on the crown of his head. Minseok tosses his phone aside and wraps his arms around Baekhyun. “I don’t wanna go, either.”

Except they both know that Minseok has classes tomorrow evening. It’s at 3pm, and he needs at least four hours of rest. He’s leaving at 11pm tonight. They still have 6 hours to spend time, though.

*

The next day, Baekhyun spends twenty minutes in his bed, awake and motionless as he thinks of the kisses. Minseok’s soft lips, the flavour of the vegetable soup after dinner, the empty alley with a bad streetlight, the way Minseok looked being pressed into the couch.

“Please tell me the couch is clean,” Chanyeol says when he enters the room with a towel around his waist. He clasps his hands in front of his chest, pouts. “We really don’t have the money to get it cleaned.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “You’re weird.”

“You’re weird,” Chanyeol replies childishly. “You’re the one in bed thinking about whatever that’s making you smile like a creep.”

**Author's Note:**

> (this fic is self-beta'd im sorry if there are any mistakes i tried my best)
> 
> aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa it's been a long time i've written xiubaek so im sorry if this seems very awkward? idk. it's not upto my usual level of fluffy-ness since i haven't really written xiubaek much :( ANYWAY i hope you liked it :D pls let me know if you did :D
> 
> (my [twitter](https://twitter.come/royalkjmyeon) | [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/cherrykims))


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